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Hi, I am considering buying a MINI, but I've heard they have some serious issues in the snow. Does anyone have a MINI that they can tell me how they handle in snowy weather? Rainy weather? Thanks.
Not quite sure about the Mini, but it's front wheel drive it should be pretty good...doubt it's real wheel drive, most rear wheel drive cars are terrible.
It's reasonably good in snow, especially with studded tires, but it's NOT good in slush and mud - at least my 05 Mini Cooper S isn't. I don't have the limited slip, but I do have traction control, and you have to be very sure to turn it off before trying to drive in mud or slush. Way too much torque, and you need the wheels to slip a little, which you don't get with the traction control on. Of course, since you have about 4" of ground clearance, you don't really want to be driving around on the kind of muddy gravel roads I live on, anyway.
It's a great late spring, summer and fall car, but in the winter it gets parked.
I'll bet a Mini with good snow tires all around would be an absolute blast to drive on packed snow. Over powered front wheel drive cars require a lot of practise to go fast on snow. FWIW - I drove over a half million miles with a couple of SAAB 99s and a lot of that was on snow. Great fun.
BTW - My all wheel drive Subaru is better and more fun.
The old "RWD cars are crappy in snow" trope doesn't really apply any more in today's world of highly effective stability control systems. Those systems obviously can't overcome the laws of physics and you'll still lose if you drive like an idiot. But if you drive with ordinary caution, those systems make RWD cars perfectly drivable in snow.
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